Author's Note

Caution: This chapter contains elements of rape. Please read with discretion.

Let's Play

The two shocked mares slowly back away. The way they look at you, it's unclear what the reason for the fear in their eyes is. Is it due to the transpiring events? Or is it how the house treating you like the disemboweled toy in the center of the room.

It would be hard to blame them. What happened? Are these visions? Are you the only one having these visions? How are you going to know what’s real and what’s fake? You rub your hand where you felt yourself hemorrhage. The pain was so vivid and real. You felt your body being drained of energy and you felt cold from blood loss. How could something like that feel so… real?

Flexing your fingers, you move out to the hallway with Twilight and Fluttershy, whose gazes haven't left you.

"Are you sure you are okay?" Twilight asks you, watching you carefully.

Are you okay? Really? How long are you going to be able to keep all of the things that you were hearing and seeing quiet from them? The giggling that persistently followed you throughout the house, the young filly that was sitting in the middle of the room, and you still swear you closed that box of dolls. Nothing’s adding up. Not… to anything rational, that is.

It’s important to keep these mares calm and collected in this situation, but Twilight knows you well enough by now. She knows you’re hiding something from them. You’ll have to tell her eventually. Taking a deep breath of the cool, dry air you try to choose your words carefully. Turning your back to the girls, you face the room you were just in. In the center of the room, you see an outline etched in the small amount of faded light that comes from a window.

She lies on the floor where the teddy bear used to lay. The silence has a new friend. The sound of slow, uneven breathing.

"What’s that sound?" Twilight says.

"Shh." You put a finger up to the girls. "Do you see her?" you ask in a hushed tone.

"See what?" she returns in whisper.

"In the middle of that room, right now, there is... what looks like a little filly."

Her outline doesn't move nor change shape, but rather lies just beyond your recognition. Twilight takes two steps forward. Her outline disappears into the violet light. The sound of breathing fades into silence.

"I don't see anything..."

You sigh deeply.

"I've been seeing these young ponies scattered throughout the house ever since we arrived. I've been hearing them giggle at me whenever something weird has happened," you say.

Fluttershy slowly nods at you. Twilight stares at you worried, yet unsurprised. You remember your trip into the storage room and the ball that brushed up against you out of nowhere.

"I think... one of them even tried... to play with me."

Twilight nods.

"Fluttershy, what happened to you earlier?" Twilight asks.

Fluttershy looks at the worn floor.

"I-it was... h-horrible," she manages to stutter out.

You kneel down and stroke her mane. She looks up at you with a faint smile, and looks to Twilight, standing up straighter.

"There was this old mare." She pauses for a moment, to recollect all the details. "She was wearing a cooking apron and had... blood... all over it. She... pointed a knife at me... and told me... with a smile." Her voice begins to waiver, trying to recollect the traumatic event. A whimper escapes her mouth as her willpower begins to fade. "I'm first."

She looks into your eyes, her face filled with worry.

"We won't let that happen, Fluttershy," you say with the most convincing smile you can give.

"That’s right. Everything will be fine if we just stick together. Now let’s check the next room."

Straightening up, you turn to face the final door at the end of the hallway. You reach for the doorknob when the door opens itself slowly.

Slowly the new room begins to reveal itself to you, and it's full of bright beautiful sunshine flowing through the windows. Six desks sat in a grid on beautiful stained oak floors. Nopony was inside this room, but you hear voices in here. Footsteps are labored as you make this way into this warm, comfortable room.

Fresh flowers sit on a large desk in the middle of the room. A pitch-black chalkboard behind the desk explained how multiple digit multiplication worked. From the front of the room, you hear a soothing feminine voice speak.

"Now first class, you need to multiply the two right digits. So what is two times three?"

Filled with excited energy, you hear several young fillies add to chorus of beauty that surrounds you.

"Six!" the fillies announce to their teacher.

"Very good!"

You continue moving forward into the beautiful surroundings. The voice is bringing you one step closer to the source of peace and tranquility.

"What are you doing?" a voice calls out from far away, just out of ear shot.

Just a few more steps. Please. The petals of the fresh flowers waltz gracefully to the floor.

"Hey!"

The sun's rays begin to shift from a bright white to a dark violet.

"STOP!"

You freeze in your tracks, and blink. You stand at the edge of a massive gaping hole in the ground. All that lies at the bottom of this hole is unfathomable darkness. Just looking into it raises bile into your throat and your hair stands on end. Taking a few steps back, you appear to be in the center of the room that used to be a classroom.

Broken rusted desks were tossed about or shoved against walls, and the teacher's desk was nowhere to be seen. The once fine wood below was now curved, rough and splintered from age. Lying on the ground in scattered pieces all over the floor was the blackboard, and its original spot on the wall stood barren. The room was graced by the golden sunset that made its way through the open windows. The breeze from outside passed through this room with ease and blew the curtains from inside to outside.

"Sorry, Twilight," you mutter, trying to register your surroundings.

"Was it another... vision?" she asks.

"Yeah. This one was incredibly vivid."

After your initial shock, the contents of the room register in your brain. The open windows are in here, and the freedom that comes with them. The floor makes threatening cracks and pops as you walk across the fragile surface to the open windows. They seem to have just enough space to allow the three of you to climb out. With luck, you would be able to come back with someone more experienced in these matters. Or even better, never come back.

"Uhm," Fluttershy says, trying to get your attention.

You take a deep breath of fresh air to compose yourself. If it's keeping her calm, then might as well let her talk that way.

"I'm trying to get us out of here through these windows. What do you need?"

"Um... T-that's what she wants you to do," Fluttershy says.

You look at the yellow pegasus, who's pupils are needle sized, and focused on something behind you. Turning your head slowly, you try to see what Fluttershy sees. You turn to see nothing; only the emptiness of the room. Twilight turns her head between you too, confused why she is the only one who cannot see these phenomenons. Standing one foot from you is the only shot to reach Ponyville before night settles in.

You have to take this chance.

Slowly stepping forward to the window, its siren song calls to you. You slowly place your right hand on the bottom base of the window. Stopping, there is no reaction in the air around you and the window doesn't move.

"Please. Please stop..." Fluttershy says. “I don’t want you to get hurt…”

Slowly you move to place your other hand on the base of the window. Your senses are on edge, trying to sense anything around you. Then you feel it. A cold breath on your left hand. Recoiling your hands, you narrowly miss the window slam shut, spraying fine pieces of glass across the room. The rest of the windows slam shut in an orchestrated fashion and shoot their fragments across the floor. The golden light refracts onto the glass and projects into rainbow patters across the walls.

You give Twilight a hard stare.

"Well, it won't let us out," you mutter. “I’m not sure what I expected.”

Fluttershy begins to whimper. Twilight stands in place, thinking as hard as she could muster.

"There has got to be a way out of here,” the purple unicorn says.

"If the spirits know we find a way, they will probably just block it off."

You and Twilight reach the same conclusion at the same time.

"We have to release the spirits from the house to get out. Don't we?" you ask.

"It seems so," Twilight answers.

“Great. How do we even begin to do that?"

"Well... all the books I've ever read on haunting in Equestria were considered fiction. So… I don’t know."

"Great! Wonderful. Fucking fantastic." You run your hands through your hair in exasperation. "So we are stuck in here for forever."

"Well... there is one thing we could try. I just don't know if it will work," she says, looking to Flutteshy.

"We don't really have a choice. Let's hear it, bookworm."

She smiles at the dose of humor.

"We need to figure out why the spirit is here and cut the tie that binds her here. Once the ties are gone, then the spirit will be able to pass on to Tartarus."

"How do we find out what is keeping the spirit here?" Fluttershy asks.

"That... I'm not sure about,” Twilight says. “I suppose we have to explore the house and make an educated guess."

You pace the room, looking down at the fine bits of glass as the sun sinks further into the sky.

"Well, we better look upstairs then," you say. “We don’t have any time to waste.”

The three of you exit the room and move towards the stairs.

"So let's review. We established that this was an orphanage. We have seen a mean old mare, and at least one filly." Twilight begins to ascend the fragile, narrow stairs, while thinking aloud to herself. Fluttershy follows her, while you bring up the rear. You can't help but look over your shoulders, feeling a set of eyes on your back. "Then maybe the spirit of the old mare is holding the children back from passing on."

"Or the reverse," you add.

A group of giggles can be heard upstairs. Reaching the top of the stairs, there are four doors on the north side of the hallway without the stairs and two on the south side, where the stairs are. The stair-door is in the middle of the hallway with an even number of doors on both sides. Moving into the right side of the hallway, you move to the source of the giggling. Looking to your companions, you nod at them, and open the door slowly.

Slowly peeking in, you see six young fillies quickly float to six little beds and disappear. You open the door fully, and slowly enter the room.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" you ask.

The room doesn't move, but you feel several sets of eyes on you. You look at the girls who are nervous, but egging you on.

"We just want to play," you say doubting yourself.

The room replies with silence, but the air shifts uneasily.

"You want to play?" says a voice from a corner of the room.

The sound makes you jump, and Fluttershy stifles a small yelp.

"We like to play games..." says another voice airily.

"What game would you like to play?" says another excited voice.

"How about the 'everyone is able to see each other' game," you suggest.

"You mean hide and seek? I love that game!" says a disembodied voice.

"Jenny, you are doing a terrible job of being scary," says another voice.

"Why do we have to be scary all the time? I just wanna have fun!"

"Because being scary is fun!"

Six young filly spirits, all with pale blue skin and no cutie marks, begin to appear in the center of the room, all arguing with each other.

"Uh... girls?" Twilight says.

Their argument intensifies as you tip toe towards them.

"Girls?" you ask.

One of the fillies begin jumping up and down while another begins to scream.

"GIRLS!"

All six stare at you with intensity in their eyes.

"WHAT!" they yell with a force that shakes the whole house.

You lose your balance, but try to keep your calm. Keep it up. Treat them just like you would the crusaders and everything should be fine.

"Uhm, hi. My name is Anon, and this is Fluttershy and Twilight."

They continue to stare at you with black, soulless voids for eyes. The frozen paleness of their skin detracts away from the holes in their faces. You take a few deep breaths before continuing on, trying to shake away shivers from your spine.

"We are trying to find a way to get out of here... but another spirit keeps trying to keep us in here. Some older lady spirit," you say.

"Oh, that must be Gertrude. She’s really mean to everyone," one of the fillies says.

"Maybe she wants to kill you too!" another suggests.

You look to your friends for guidance. Twilight moves besides you and puts on the practiced, careful tone of a teacher.

"We want to help you girls get out of here too, but we need to know how we can help you move on. We think that if you girls aren't here anymore, she won't stay either. Then, the three of us can leave."

The girls look around, unsure of how to answer. One of the spirits steps forward from the other five and speaks up.

"We’re too scared to go. Gertrude would always beat us if we tried to leave."

Fluttershy's fear turns to compassion as she joins you and Twilight.

"You poor little things..." she says gently.

"Don't worry, lady! It used to really hurt a lot, but it doesn't hurt anymore! We’re all better now."

Her hoof comes to her mouth, unsure of what to say.

"She can't make you girls stay here anymore. So why don't you girls pass on?" you ask.

"We don't want to leave each other. It’s… scary."

You run your hands through your hair. Even fillies were hard to deal with even when they weren't living.

"How about this... we play a game of hide and seek... and if we find you, you move to the other side?" you ask.

The fillies all look at each other and discuss among themselves. One of the six pulls away from the group and addresses you directly.

"On one condition."

"Okay. What is it?” you ask.

"If you lose, you stay here with us and keep playing."

"Oh. Well that doesn't sound so ba-"

"Forever," she says.

How did you know that was coming? Children always did have a knack for melodrama. But if the three of you have any hope for actual escape, it seems you don’t have much of a choice.

"Okay. That’s fine, but you have to be visible and you can only hide on this floor, or the ground floor," you say.

The fillies talk among themselves again.

"Okay! We’re too scared to go in the basement anyway," their leader says.

"Then, let's start," you say.

"All of you close your eyes and count to twenty!" their leader commands. Then the ghost fillies disappear into thin air.

You turn to the Twilight and Fluttershy.

"Well, it’s the only lead we have so far,” you say. “Here goes nothing."

"Let's get counting then. Everypony, eyes closed. We have to play by their rules," orders Twilight.

"B-but... Then we wouldn't see if something is coming into the room," Fluttershy complains.

You place a hand on Fluttershy's mane and try to give her a look of reassurance.

"The sooner we get this done, the sooner we get out. Eyes on the prize, Fluttershy."

She smiles and nods to you.

"I'll start the countdown. Don’t open your eyes for any reason," Twilight says.

You close your eyes tightly.

Yet your vision does not fail you. The room is devoid of your pony friends, and a mare with a long silver mane stands in front of you. Her gray coat seems to radiate hatred as a feeling of unease enters the room. Her features move and twitch erratically. One of her eyes rolls to the back of her head.

"One," you hear Twilight say from all around you.

Time feels as if it's slowing down.

"You can't run," says the mare in front of you, her voice twisted and distorted.

You try to open your mouth, but words stay in the back of your throat. Burning sensations run through your body as you command it to move, but you find yourself paralyzed.

"You’re mine now," The mare says to you, as she slowly walks across the room.

Each step of her hoof leaves echoes resonating through the room.

"Two."

Fighting through the pain, your legs move backwards, matching the speed of the oncoming mare.

"If you want your friends to stay alive, you have to play my game."

Words continue to fail you.

"Three."

Maybe it can hear your thoughts.

"What kind of game?" you think to the apparition.

She snickers at you as you stumble your footing. A shooting pain runs up your right leg as you fumble for balance.

"It's simple... Easy, in fact," the mare smiles, looking upon you like a piece of meat.

"Four."

"I haven't felt a stallion's touch in decades..."

You hit the wall, and you can see a malevolent smile stretch across her face.

"Five."

"You are going to be all mine."

She disappears in front of you. Silence envelops the stale air as you scan around you for any sight of her. You feel something behind you, causing you to bolt around to see the empty wall.

"Six."

Control over your body becomes even more difficult as you begin to lift into the air. Fighting the external force feels useless as more pain flows through you.

"Seven."

Air flies through your body as you are thrown on one of the undersized beds. The covers rip into several pieces and bind you to the bedposts.

"Eight."

The mare floats above you, with her hair covering all but the lustful smile on her face.

"I'm going to enjoy this... very much." She says menacingly, floating down on top of your body.

She takes a moment to take a deep whiff of your hair before she nibbles your ear.

"Nine."

You turn your head to look away from your oppressor. Every move you made as well as every action she did to you sends sharp juts of pain through your body. She grabs your face with one hoof and forces her tongue into your mouth.

"Ten."

The sensations of pain weren't what caused you to gag and choke. It was the dry, moldy texture of decaying flesh performing a slow dance in your mouth. She slowly moves a hoof down and tears your shirt off you in one strong motion.

"Eleven."

You feel her tongue move like sandpaper down your chest towards your manhood, while massaging your groin with a hoof. Slowly she undoes your pants, and pulls everything down, as if trying to enjoy a present on Christmas Day.

"Twelve."

"Stop... Please..." you beg.

An invisible force punches you in the face, causing blood to join your saliva.

"Thirteen."

She raises herself above your crotch and lets out a short triumphant giggle. A cold, slimey sensation envelops your member as she plunges down on you.

"Fourteen."

You've never felt something like this before. The texture makes you want to throw up, but pain is beginning to overwhelm the feeling of disgust. Her body feels as cold as ice.

"Fifteen."

Your body begins to respond purely on instinct. Her motions become faster as she lets out more tiny moans.

“Sixteen."

You feel yourself beginning to near climax, as your body tightens up. The pain is unbearable as you feel as if you were on fire. She leans into your body and bites into your neck, blood flowing freely down your chest.

"Seventeen."

"Oh god, no..." you mutter.

"Yes... give me all of it."

Fire flows through your veins as you pump your seed into her. Her iciness begins to melt some as she bites a chunk of flesh from your neck.

"Eighteen."

"Mmmmm."

She continues to pump you for the rest of your juices and licks the flowing blood from the pulsing hole in your neck.

"Nineteen."

Her hair parts in front of you, revealing two deep black bleeding eyes that pierce directly into your soul.

"None of you will leave alive."

"Twenty!"

Your eyes shoot open, and you gasp for breath. The two ponies scan the room just as you are right now. Nothing seems to be different. You turn around; so that the ponies can't see you check your pants. Everything… seems normal.

A feminine giggle rings through your ears.

"Hey… you okay?" Twilight asks you in a worried tone.

You turn to face the ponies and nod as confidently as you can. It must have just been another vision. It was all in your head. It must be. It had to be.

"Uhm…" Fluttershy says, pointing a hoof towards you.

"Yeah, Fluttershy?"

"Y-your neck... it's bleeding," she says.

Reaching your hand to your neck, you pull away traces of blood. You feel bile rise in your stomach as you turn away from them. You take deep, careful breaths, trying not to think of the images that flashed before your eyes.

"We will just have to have it looked at when we get out of here," you say shakily.

Exiting the room, you take one last look back at the bed where your hallucination took you. It seems completely normal, with the exception of a few drops of blood near the pillows. You immediately look away and close the door behind you.